Have you ever called a customer service line and felt like you were stuck in an automated maze?
We’ve all been there.
Well, things are changing with companies using Generative AI (GenAI) to develop more effective contact centre solutions. Customer Contact Week recently released their Market Study: State of Generative AI, March 2024; this report takes feedback from contact centre leaders sharing their views on the use of Generative AI.
The report paints a picture of how GenAI will revolutionise contact centres - not by replacing human interaction, but by creating a seamless collaboration between AI and human agents, which will ultimately improve employee and customer experience.
Exploiting Generative Al for Contact Centre Success
In this blog, I’ll look at the amazing possibilities GenAI presents for your contact centre. I’ll focus on how it will benefit employees, empower key leaders, and how organisations should approach implementing these solutions.
How GenAI Benefits Employees
Al for contact centres will be a key driver in increasing contact centre efficiency, benefiting your customers by improving Customer Experience (CX), and your organisation by providing increased workforce optimisation.
I’m going to focus, however, on how the use of GenAI within your contact centre will improve your Employee Experience (EX) because increasing EX not only raises levels of wellbeing and engagement but also encourages creativity and productivity.
We’ve explored this in previous blogs, including Who Benefits from an Employee-Centred Environment? and, more recently, How a Strong Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Strategy Boosts Productivity.
Using chatbots, virtual assistants, and effective call routing based on interactive voice response and speech recognition will manage contacts efficiently and handle simple tasks. This will result in:
Reducing Repetitive Tasks: By having AI handle the most simple queries—password resets and basic troubleshooting—we’re freeing up agents to tackle more complex issues and personalised interactions. This reduces stress and allows agents to develop their skills and expertise.
Real-time Support & Knowledge Base: GenAI will give your agent instant access to the latest product knowledge, suggested responses tailored to the specific customer interaction, and even real-time sentiment analysis to gauge customer frustration. These tools will empower agents to deliver exceptional service on every call.
Improved Work-Life Balance: We know that contact centres can be demanding. GenAI can help manage call volumes, ensuring a fairer workload distribution and translating to happier, healthier staff with a better work-life balance.
While also discussing the impact of self-service automation, the CCW report suggests that “empowered agents can more immediately move the customer experience needle than intelligent bots. Additionally, risks related to hallucinations and inaccurate communication are less significant for internal automation solutions since agents are in a better position to identify and correct such mistakes before they reach the public.” They suggest that many organisations will focus on agent-focused AI solutions instead of customer-facing developments.
Employee Concerns for GenAI in Contact Centres
This does raise some concerns, though. While the leaders questioned in the report are not particularly worried about AI-driven job losses, they report that their agents are concerned. Almost as many leaders report that agents are worried AI might reduce the human touch within the contact centre. “Other employee-centric concerns include the learning curve associated with new tools (69%), the adverse impact self-service may have on customer sentiment (65%), compensatory cost-cutting that may result from AI investments (63%), and the shift to more draining work (59%).”
It’s interesting to see here that while moving to more complex work is traditionally positioned as good for employees, this report shows a need to consider nuance. Although employees may not enjoy repetitive questions and password reset requests, this doesn’t mean they are looking forward to spending their days dealing with complicated questions from demanding customers. “Demanding customers, it is worth noting, that may be particularly angry since they just exerted effort on an unproductive chatbot or IVR conversation.”
The report goes on to suggest that organisations will have the most success if they focus on AI solutions directly addressing agent pain points. It identifies these ‘high effort, high frustration’ tasks as looking up answers to customer questions, accessing or updating knowledge bases, accessing information about customers and their previous interactions, getting internal help, and note-taking.
It goes on to suggest that “The most effective generative AI investments, therefore, will achieve key goals:
Provide real-time guidance to agents, thus reducing their need to spend time poring through knowledge bases or surmising answers to customer inquiries.
Update, unify, and streamline knowledge bases to help agents make better, more efficient use of such information.
Empower agents with actionable intelligence about customers to foster more contextual, personalised conversations.
Reduce reliance on peer support, while also simplifying the process of reaching internal experts and securing supervisor approvals.
Eliminate mid-interaction distractions so that agents can focus more intently on connecting with customers.
AI Solutions for Key Leaders
So, what does this mean for our key leaders? It’s clear that the right AI solutions will support contact centre agents, but what is your role in achieving this improved customer and employee experience?
Digital Experience Leads: By introducing AI-powered chatbots to handle simple queries, you’ll free up website resources while providing 24/7 customer support. AI can also analyse customer interactions, identifying trends and pain points to optimise website design.
Workspace Experience Leads: Using AI to analyse call data allows optimisation of call routing and agent scheduling. Additionally, workspace layouts can be adapted to ensure optimum working practices for call centre agents.
Learning & Development Leads: AI can personalise agent training based on individual strengths and weaknesses. It can also analyse call recordings to identify areas for improvement and provide targeted coaching opportunities.
Considerations for Developing AI Solutions
The benefits of developing AI solutions for contact centres are many, but the report reminds us of certain considerations which need to remain at the forefront as we explore our next steps.
Human-Centred Approach: AI should enhance, not replace, the human touch. Customers value real interaction, so ensure your AI solution complements your human agents.
Data Use Security & Privacy: Implementing AI requires robust data security measures. To ensure user and employee confidence in solutions, be transparent about data collection and usage and ensure compliance with all relevant regulations.
Change Management: Transitioning to AI can cause apprehension. Clear communication, training, and support for staff throughout the process are crucial. Ensure all the challenges of the project are understood, and the risks managed.
As technology evolves, we can expect even greater employee and customer benefits from AI. By thoughtfully embracing these technologies, contact centres can create a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Happy, well-equipped agents empowered by AI will deliver exceptional customer service, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty from both customers and employees.
Will your organisation see these benefits?
If you’re thinking about integrating AI into your contact centre but are unsure where to start, we can help. Just get in touch.
About the Author
I'm Terry Chana. I am an innovation strategist that connects customer, employee and brand experiences. My passion lies in building ecosystems to solve business problems by combining creativity and technology.